HANOI, May 20, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - US President Donald Trump's real estate company is seeking to build a tower in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnamese officials said on Tuesday, with his son due to scout locations this week.

Authorities in Vietnam's southern business hub said in a statement they met a representative of the Trump Organization and its local partner, the Kinhbac City Development Corporation (KBC).

The statement said authorities had already conducted a field survey of two potential locations in the eastern part of the city on Monday and are scheduled to meet leaders of the Trump Organization on Thursday.

The company, which builds luxury developments around the world, has come under scrutiny, with critics accusing Trump of leveraging his political position for personal financial gain.

The state-controlled Tuoi Tre newspaper said the organisation's senior vice-president Eric Trump, the US president's second son, would lead the visit.

It also said the delegation would visit a proposed location for "Trump Tower".

The Trump Organization did not respond immediately to AFP's request for comment.

Tuoi Tre said Eric Trump would also attend a ground-breaking ceremony on Wednesday for a $1.5 billion luxury resort and golf course developed by the Trump Organization and KBC.

The 990-hectare golf complex in northern Hung Yen province outside Hanoi will feature a 54-hole course and residential villas, the newspaper said.

Project director Charles Boyd-Bowman said in a meeting with Vietnam's Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh in March that his group aimed to finish the golf resort in March 2027, before Vietnam hosts the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit.

Vietnam and the United States are engaged in trade talks after President Trump threatened a 46 percent levy on Vietnamese goods as part of his global tariff blitz.

Trump visited the Vietnamese capital in 2019 for his abortive second summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

He described Hanoi at the time as an "incredible city", praising Vietnam for "the job they've done -- economic development".